New grant-funded recycling containers the first step in MC recycling program revamp
Jan. 26, 2023
Students returning to Maryville College after Winter Break were greeted by new recycling collection containers scattered throughout two campus buildings, thanks to a $60,000 grant from the Arconic Foundation.
Dr. Jay Clark, director of environmental and sustainability initiatives at the College, is overseeing the project, which he hopes to bring to every campus building before Earth Day, set for April 22. The goal, he said, is to streamline Maryville College’s recycling, reduce the school’s overall waste stream and promote sustainability as a culture among students, faculty and staff.
“Here at the College, our recycling program has always been student-run, so it’s been hit or miss depending on who’s willing to take charge of it,” Clark said. “As the director of sustainability, revamping that has been something we’ve worked on for a year now, and what we’re hoping, once we get this rolling campus-wide, is to see a 50% increase in the number of our recyclables over the course of the year, as well as an increase month-to-month that shows we’re improving our efforts as more people learn about what to do and how to do it.”
The grant from Arconic Foundation, received last summer, was one of 11 awarded to nonprofit organizations in Blount, Knox and Sevier counties to further education, environmental sustainability and social equity programs. Arconic, with production facilities across the United States and around the world, is a leading provider of aluminum and architectural products for the automotive, aerospace, commercial transportation, industrial, packaging and building, and construction industries. The company’s foundation frequently partners with nonprofit and local community organizations to support education through learning experiences, environmental responsibility and socially conscious causes.
“Promoting programs that encourage recycling is vital to our business and to our vision for a more sustainable future here in Blount County,” said Christy Newman, community relations manager at Arconic Tennessee Operations. “Enabling more recycling creates scrap availability, which is the lifeblood of our business.”
Once the grant was awarded, Clark and Adrienne Schwarte, Maryville College professor of design and coordinator of the Sustainability Studies minor, began researching the best way to use it to further College recycling efforts.
“We looked at different recycling companies and what kind of bins to get, as well as research looking into empirical studies of how recycling programs have worked at other colleges and universities,” Clark said. “We went with CleanRiver Recycling Solutions not only for bins, but because they’ve worked with well over 100 colleges and universities, and they have a consulting arm that gave us an idea of what’s worked across other campuses.”
With 12 bins in the Sutton Science Center and 19 in Fayerweather Hall, the goal, according to Clark, is to begin cultural changes on a small scale to get members of the Maryville College community on board, and to ensure the new measures don’t add to the work of the College’s custodial and housekeeping staffs.
“The challenge is to figure out how to get them to help with recycling without increasing their workload,” Clark said. “So what we’ve done is place a bin within 30 to 50 steps of every person on every floor of Sutton and Fayerweather, and we’re asking people to be responsible for getting their waste and their recycling into those bins. Historically, the housekeeping staff comes into every single office in every single building, every day, to empty the trash.
“So what we’re doing, until people get used to using the bins, is to put hangtags on office doors like you would see at a hotel. One side lets housekeeping know they don’t need to come in and empty the trash or clean anything, and on the flip side, it signals for them to come in and vacuum or whatever.”
Once collected by housekeeping, the custodial staff empties recyclables into roll-off bins that are picked up weekly by WestRock Recycling Solutions, a Knoxville-based company that has partnered with the College for several years now. Although still in the “test” phase of the project, Clark is enthusiastic about the ways in which Maryville College can become even better environmental and sustainability stewards of the region.
“The system is based not only on the bin design, but visual cues in the form of posters, and the door hangers that get everyone in the habit of responsibility,” he said. “The goal is to spread it campus-wide by Earth Day, but it really is about changing the culture. It’s not that people don’t care about or don’t want to recycle, but now it’s going to be much more convenient, and we hope people start to think about recycling in the same way they do throwing away trash.”